THE INFLUENCE OF USABILITY ATTRIBUTES ON STUDENTS' USE OF LEARNING MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS: A THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

Learning management systems (LMS) are online mediums that enable students to pursue their education with no limitations in terms of location and time. Although LMS have been widely adopted in universities worldwide, the utilisation of such systems by students is still low in some educational contexts. Addressing this gap, this study aims to propose a conceptual model that may be beneficial in explaining factors that affect student use and acceptance of LMS in higher education. The proposed model was developed based on a wide review of the published literature on technology acceptance in information systems and perceived usability in e-learning. More specifically, eight usability attributes were adopted into the technology acceptance model (TAM). As usability is important in uptake of e-learning systems, the authors believe that extending TAM with usability attributes would be helpful in explaining the variance of TAM constructs and in investigating how usability attributes influence student use and acceptance of LMS. The results of this study show that usability attributes (content quality, learning support, visual design, system navigation, ease of access, system interactivity, instructional assessment and system learnability) influence both perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness, which are the main constructs of TAM. This work opens doors for future research in examining the effect of usability on student use of LMS. Further, understanding the influence of usability attributes might be useful for decision makers and professionals to improve usability as perceived by students and increase uptake.